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Mac MS Office Macros

I'm just wondering if any of the infamous macro-viruses for MS Word/Excel/PPT docs can be used on Mac computers, with atleast a little bit of altering to make it compatible.

I wouldn't think so, but its worth looking into.

The reason I ask is I'm trying to convince my school to take office off of the Mac's in the lab. The programs on there make the Mac's all Windows boxes with a Unix shell and a slightly better GUI. They've tainted Apple. ::Shudders::

Re: Mac MS Office Macros

Originally posted here by SonofGalen
I'm just wondering if any of the infamous macro-viruses for MS Word/Excel/PPT docs can be used on Mac computers, with atleast a little bit of altering to make it compatible.

Convincing them by setting loose a macro virus doesn't sound very wise.

Besides, what would you suggest they put on the Macs instead? OpenOffice? AppleWorks?

I love my Mac, and I've tried to keep it as M$ Free as possible, but AppleWorks isn't anywhere as complete as M$Office. OpenOffice the last I checked was still only using X11, which made it look and feel completely different from the rest of the system, that only leads to confusing users (unless ofcourse they are seasoned OpenOffice users on other systems, then they might feel right at home).

The other thing that you have to consider is compatibility. And I'm not talking strictly file compatibility, I'm talking tech-support compatibility. Do you know how much it sucks to have to keep up-to-date with the technologies you are using if someone decides that this set of computers should use this other program/suite when all the rest of the coputers use this other one that they have been using for years?

Most ITS people are not trained specifically in Mac, the reason being that Macs are usually a small subset of the computers in use. And usually Places that have mostly Macs are rather small and don't have a specific ITS dept.

You also have to consider that these computers are being used in an educational setting. Education is in part supposed to give youu a base subset of skills for what is to come post education. The rest of the world uses M$Office, it is the defacto standard of office suites, thus you shouldn't be crippled by using some lower food chain product.

And to top it all off, I think that Office X is far better at doing what it is supposed to than Office for Windows. For the longest time Mac Office languished behind the Windows version, emphasizing its lack of priority for M$, then OfficeX came out and it seriously blew me away.

Just concider yourself lucky that you get to use one of M$ better creations on what I consider to be a better piece of hardware. Once your document is typed you can close the program, and let it fade from your mind.

Peace,
Dhej

The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of dusk. -Hegel